Updated: More than 4 characters will be revealed on January 17, 2012 for Street Fighter X Tekken, Yoshinori Ono confirmed this afternoon. He also gave a time frame of when users can expect the official announcements.

Earlier, Ono locked down a specific date for new character announcements in SFxT via Twitter.

You confirm 4 characters in Jan. 17th? — Joe_Flex

Ono: More!! I'll be make preparation it !! ;D

Is the announcement on the 17th for Japan time or worldwide? — TheCaz

Ono: We'll be post it to Media after 17th 8 a.m. (PST) ;D

We'll be release about new characters for Street Fighter X Tekken on January 17!! I'll make preparation [for] it now. ;D

Previously M. Bison and Ling Xiaoyu were leaked for the game. Also, Ono has been hinting at Juri a lot on Twitter as of late.

Yoshinori Ono went on Twitter today and made a comment about how someone saved his tweet picture upload showing off Ling Xiaoyu's feet in a mirror match.

X,Xia,Xiaoyu? ;P Btw,thx for saving! RT @CleaRcardaci:Now that I know Xiaoyu is in, I'm saving up to get SFXTK!

Click images for larger versions
You can check out the previous story where Ling and M.Bison were leaked to get some portraits.

Ono also confirmed that there will be 4 or more characters revealed on January 17th. This is thought to be matched up from the teasers shown several months ago.

Street Fighter and Tekken, while both fighting games, are very different on a number of levels. One fairly simple difference is the abundance of projectile attacks in Street Fighter, whereas Tekken generally lacks them. Tekken meanwhile isn't 2D, which means you could potentially sidestep an incoming fireball or Hadouken.

These issues present a variety of challenges for both Capcom and Namco Bandai with their respective crossovers. In the case of Tekken X Street Fighter, Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada still isn't sure about how the issue of fireballs will be handled.

"Obviously, the Street Fighter characters will have to have their fireballs," he told PlayStation Blog at the EVO fighting game tournament this past weekend. "Ryu without a fireball just wouldn't be... right. Obviously we'll need it. When you look at executing a fireball in a 2D setting, it works almost like a jab. It keeps your opponent where you want them."

As Harada sees it, there are two different ways to handle them in Tekken X SF: "It could be used as something similar to keep your opponent in the place you want, or it could be some kind of a special move or powered-up version of their techniques."

Whichever way is the right choice, that decision has yet to be made. The issue of avoiding fireballs is another thing Namco Bandai will have to think long and hard about.

"When you play a 2D game like Street Fighter, you obviously can't go back and forth in the screen -- you usually jump over it," Harada said. "But in three-dimensional fighting games like Tekken you can sidestep. So do we want players to jump over fireballs? Or is it okay to sidestep them? That's something we're not decided on, we haven't had enough time to look into it. We have a lot of staff, myself included, who grew up liking Street Fighter. I'm really confident that we can come to a good balance between the two worlds."

If this talk is starting to worry you, keep in mind Tekken X Street Fighter is further off than Street Fighter X Tekken. Harada recently described it as being "at zero percent," so there's more than enough time for these issues and others to be pondered.

If you were in charge, what would your solution for fireballs in a Tekken game be?

As previously promised by producer Yoshinori Ono, Capcom has released a couple of new trailers for Street Fighter X Tekken showing off new characters. Crossing the line to join the fray are M. Bison, Jin Kazama, Ling Xiaoyu, Balrog, Vega, Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law. In addition to those, there’s also a hint of possible appearances by Pac-Man and what seems to be “Bad Box Art” Mega Man.

There is also a Street Fighter X Tekken Special Edition listed on Amazon.com which includes the Cross Arts Gem Pack. This pack contains 9 gems that will help the player build Cross Gauge faster. The Special Edition is priced at $69.96. GameStop has a similar listing.

Australia
JB Hi Fi is offering the standard edition of the game along with a 60cm x 90cm wall scroll featuring Ryu and Kazuya Mishima priced at $89.

EB Games has an exclusive special edition bundle. This includes a DIY 5" arcade cabinet, a prequel comic book by UDON and 45 in-game gems. The 45 gems are made up of the 4 gem packs previously mentioned and the King of the Iron Fist Gem Pack which is exclusive to this bundle. This will run buyers roughly $128.

Game shoppers can pick up the standard edition of the game bundled with a Kazuya Mishima and Ken T-shirt for $98.

Japan
The Japanese Collector's Edition is packed with a two disc, 46 song soundtrack, and a 44 page artbook called Character Art Collection. Also, if you buy the game from Capcom's e-Capcom online retailer, you'll get a tabletop calendar that also functions as a move list. The standard edition of SFxT will be priced at ¥6,090 ($78 USD) in Japan. The Collectors Edition is priced ¥8,300 ($106 USD).